Movable stationery

\ f

1 cr "

d" r~> ^

i A. ,1 ...

1 v J l NL

A \

... ■lij. _

i

Volume 20 | Number 2

\0&p.

*

]! ]M
JUsH

■ A Pop-up World of Books,
Reading, and Libraries

By Rhonda Harris Taylor

\ 6 2012

}

and Nancy Larson Bluemel

. 1 and wfat is the use of a book.’ thought Alice,
‘without pictures or conversations? ’"—Lewis Carroll
(1832-1898; from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
1865) j

As collectors of pop-up books, presenters of workshops
about using pop-ups across the curriculum, and as just
rabid fans of pop-up formats and contents, we started
thinking about themes of pop-up books close to our own
professional interests as librarians and teachers. Of course,
many pop-up books are paper
engineered versions of
“regular" books, including both
those intended for children and
works that are also appealing to
adults. Some examples include:

Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland: A Pop-up

Adaptation of Lewis Carroll's
Original Tale (2003) paper
engineering by Robert Sabuda;

The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Pop-up Book (2009) by Eric
Carle and paper engineering by
Keith Finch; Raggedy Ann and
Andy and The Camel with the
Wrinkled Knees: A Classic

Collectible Pop-up™ (2003) “

Based on the original story by Johnny Gruelle; illustrations
adapted and paper engineering by Kees Moerbeek"; and
Stephen King's The Girl Who
Loved Tom Gordon (2004) that
author’s first pop-up and with
paper engineering by Kees
Moerbeek.

But we wanted to examine
our individual collections of
pop-ups through the lens of:
Which ones present books,
reading, libraries, and/or
librarians, and what messages
Alice’s Adventures in are conveyed by the text and
Wonderland the PaPer engineering,

especially in a digital age?

Raggedy Ann
and Andy

and (!«■

Camel with (he Wrinkle J Knees

f*

Raggedy Ann and Andy
and The Camel with the
Wrinkled Knees

Exploring Tunnel Books

Edward H. Hutchins
Salem, New Y ork

Setting the Stage

As in any good discussion, the terms used must be
properly defined. But alas, when it comes to talking about
books, and in particular, how a book is defined, we run into
problems. Through the centuries, books have proved to be
remarkably adaptable, changing to meet the conditions and
needs of many cultures. Therefore, a single definition may not
prove satisfactory.

The first libraries,
the first collections of
recorded intellectual
thought organized by
categories, were clay
tablets first put on
shelves afound 1300
B.C. The collection of
books we call the Bible
started out as scrolls, and the Torah, still is. In Mexico, long
before the Spanish arrived, books were made out of long
strips of bark paper and folded back and forth in an accordion
fashion. They had no words, but volumes have been written
about the rich and detailed information contained in their
colorful glyphs. In 10th century China, the whirlwind or
dragon-scale binding was a scroll with multiple pages
attached.

Changes in book structure are not limited to ancient times.
Today it is possible to download pages into an e-book. The
Workman Publishing Company has released a new,

“innovative”
structure they call a
tumbling book,
though many artists
have been employing
a Jacob’s ladder
structure with text
and illustrations for a
long time.

Books have taken
and continue to take
many forms, and it is
in this context of
diversity that we turn our attention to one of the most
fascinating, and to some, controversial, structures: tunnel
books.

-AS. aW*

Gertie Escapes. 1999

Star Box

Continued on page 4

Continued on page 1 1

The Movable Book Society

ISSN: 1097-1270

Movable Stationery is the quarterly publication of The
Movable Book Society. Letters and articles from members
on relevant subjects are welcome. The index to past issues
o/Movable Stationery is available at:

http://movablebooksociety.org
The annual membership fee for the society is $30.00 in the
U. S. and $35.00 outside of the U. S. For more information
contact: Ann Montanaro. The Movable Book Society, P. O.
Box 9190, Salt Lake City, Utah 84109-0190, USA.

Telephone: 801-277-6700

e-mail: info@movablebooksociety.org.

The deadline for the August issue is July 15.

Movable Book Collections in
North American Libraries, Part 2

Ann Montanaro
Salt Lake City, Utah

Book collections in a dozen institutions were described
in the article “Movable Book Collections in North
American Libraries,” published in Movable Stationery in
August 2006 (volume 14, number 3, pages 6-9). Featured
in that article were collections at Florida Atlantic
University; Indiana University, Lilly Library; Pierpont
Morgan Library; Princeton University, Cotsen Children’s
Library; Toronto Public Library Osborne Collection of
Early Children's Books; Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper-
Hewitt; National Design Museum Library; University of
California, Los Angeles; University of Florida; University
of Southern Mississippi; University of W iscon sin -Madison;
University of Virginia; Western Michigan University; and
Yale University Library. Since that article was published,
significant collections have been added to five other
institutions in the United States.

Most of the books in the following collections are
available to library visitors. Each library website includes
guidelines about accessing and using library resources.
Before visiting a library to see books housed in a special
collection, identify the titles you would like to see, verify
that they are in the library (not in an exhibition or stored
off-site), and that they will be available for you to view and
handle.

University of Michigan

Ann Arbor, Michigan

Library catalog: http://mirlyn.lib.umich.edu/

The University of Michigan pop-up book holdings in
the Children’s Literature Collection in the Special
Collections Library number over 2,700 titles, primarily
from the 20th century. The collection is comprised largely
of the gift of The William A. Gosling Pop-up and Movable

Book Collection. Prior to his retirement in 2008, Bill served
for eight years as University Librarian at the University of
Michigan, followed by three years as Curator of the
Children's Literature Collection. It was recently enriched by
the addition of hundreds of pop-ups from the estate of UM
alumnae Dona Ostrander of Florida.

The collection is especially strong in the paper engineering
work of Julian Wehr, lb Penick, William C. Wolff, Paul
Wilgress, David Hawcock, Ron van der Meer, Peter
Seymour, John Strejan, Rodger Smith, Jose R. Seminario,
Bruce Reifel, Chuck Murphy, Keith Moseley, Kees
Moerbeek, Dennis Meyer, Vojtech Kubasta, Tor Lokvig,
Renee Jablow, Richard Hawke, Bruce Foster, Dick Dudley,
James Roger Diaz, Robert Culbertson, David A. Carter,
Geraldine Cline, and a full set of signed works by Robert
Sabuda, among others. Disney publications are also broadly
represented in the holdings.

In addition to the more general works from the 20th
century, older highlights include Dean and Sons' ABC dated
1859, and examples of Nister’s work from the 1890s. The
library continues to add to the collection, recently acquiring
another 1858 Dean & Sons title, and Lothar Meggendorfer’s
Look at Mel, London, 1891.

The collection is being
used by School of
Information students, as well
as those in the School of Art
and Design, the School of
Education, in exhibits, and
in presentations to various
community groups.

University of Southern
M aine

Portland, Maine

Library catalog: http://ursus.maine.edu/search~S 1 ?/

Anne Williams gave the bulk of her pop-up collection to
the Special Collections section of the Glickman Family
Library at the University of Southern Maine in 2005, 2006,
and2007.ItiscalledtheAnneD. Williams Family Collection
of Movable Books. Included in the collection are about 700
books (mostly post-1960, but a few earlier), plus assorted
pop-up greeting cards, maps, ads, and other ephemera. The
library is currently cataloging the items, so they do not yet all
appear in the online catalog. For more information or to see
books in the collection, contact Susie Bock, Special
Collections librarian by email at bocks@usm.maine.edu.

Top reasons to attend The Movable
Book Society Conference in Salt Lake City:

'A' You’ll meet wonderful people who
share your love of pop-ups!

2

The University of Southern Maine was selected to
receive Anne’s collection because her pop-up books
complement their existing children’s book collection. The
Williams collection also meshes nicely with the mission of
the Kate Cheney Chappell '83 Center for Book Arts,
established at USM in 2008. The pop-up collection is being
used in book design and other art classes and has also been
used in a class on sustainability, culture, and the
environment. The books are important to students in these
areas both for their structure and for their content.

While Anne continues to collect pop-up books, her
primary collecting focus is jigsaw puzzles. She is a
founding member of the Association of Game and Puzzle
Collectors (www.agpc.org) and has written extensively on
the history of jigsaw puzzles. Her most recent book is The
Jigsaw Puzzle: Piecing Together a History.

San Jose State University

San Jose, California

Library catalog: http://www.sjlibrary.org/

The Jeanne Rose Pop-up Book Collection of over 400
books was donated to San Jose State University in 2009. It
is housed in the Special Collections Department and
includes primarily American imprints from the 1980s and
1990s. A small selection of the titles can be seen in their
online exhibit at: http://bit.ly/I71ZZJ.

Bowdoin College

Brunswick, Maine

Library catalog: http://library.bowdoin.edu/

The Harold M. Goralnick Pop-up Book Collection was
donated to Bowdoin College Library's George J. Mitchell
Special Collections & Archives in 2008. Harry (Bowdoin
Class of 1 97 1 ) began acquiring pop-ups and other movable
books in 1999 and he donated his collection to the college
both to make the books publicly accessible and to
complement the library’s broader holdings in the book arts.
The collection numbers over 1 ,900 volumes dating mainly
from the 1940s to the present. Most of the books were
published in the United States or Great Britain, but some,
particularly fairy tales, also appear in German, French,
Czech, and Italian, among other languages. The Library
continues to acquire pop-up books to add to the collection.

Some of the books in this collection were acquired
because of the paper engineer who created them: David A.
Carter, Dick Dudley, Bruce Foster, David Hawcock,
Vojtech Kubasta, Tor Lokvig, Lothar Meggendorfer, Kees
Moerbeek, Keith Moseley, Chuck Murphy, Ernest Nister,
David Pelham, lb Penick, Matthew Reinhart, Robert
Sabuda, Rodger Smith, John Strejan, Ron van der Meer,
and Julian Wehr. Others were added because of their
subject matter: fairy tales, alphabet, counting, animals,
Disney, space travel, monsters, haunted houses. Star Wars,

religion, architecture, erotica, insects, dinosaurs, and earth
science.

In 201 1 an exhibit, Pop-ups - They’re Not Just for Kids!,
was displayed in the Bowdoin’s Hawthorne-Longfellow
Library and an online version is available at:
http://bit.ly/hmM3uS. The online exhibit features works that
demonstrate the wide diversity of pop-up books. In addition
to items from the Goralnick Collection, it also includes other
books from Special Collections, mostly artists’ books, that
celebrate paper engineering.

College of Charleston

Charleston, South Carolina

Library catalog: http://www.cofc.edu/library/index.php

Eleanor M. Heldrich has been slowly donating her
collection of movable books to the College of Charleston
Libraries over the past few years. She chose that college
because her son is a professor of Chemistry there and they
have been willing to accept the books as small donations of
a few shipping boxes at a time. The librarians have told her
that students of early childhood education are the most
frequent borrowers of the books and that the collection has
been the feature of several displays. The collection includes
about 1,300 titles, primarily 20lh century American books.
Eleanor continues to collect pop-up books that will eventually
be part of the College of Charleston collection. She has also
donated books to the Decker Library at the Maryland Institute
College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland.

University of New Hampshire

Durham, New Hampshire

Library catalog: http://www.library.unh.edu/

In 2008 Card Chapman donated her collection of
movable books to the University of New Hampshire Library.
The Card Chapman Movable Book Collection is housed in
the Milne Special Collections and Archives and contains over
1,800 pop-up and movable books dating from the 1800s to
the present and new titles are being added on a regular basis.
An exhibit of the books was on display in the library in 20 1 1 .

Carel chose her daughter’s alma mater to receive the large
collection which represents nearly every American pop-up
book published from the 1 970s through the 1 990s. Currently
only about 300 titles appear in the library catalog but they
are in the process of adding full catalog records for all of the
books.

^ You'll hear fabulous speakers!

Continued on page 8

3

Pop-up world of Books, continued from page 1

This very arbitrary selection mostly contains titles
marketed to children, but several were designed for adult
readers.

For all books are divisible into two classes, the books of the
hour, and the books of all time. -James Ruskin ( 1819-1900 ;
from Sesame and Lilies, 1868)

The “Golden Age of Pop-up
Books” provided homages to
books and reading. For instance,
several wonderful reproductions
of Ernest Nister’s work highlight
the joys of reading. Philomel
Book’s 1990 Mother and Me: An
Antique Picture Book by Ernest
Nister (designed by Keith
Moseley) is a delightfully
sentimental six-inch-tall book in
soft colors. The vignette of
“Story Time” is a nostalgic and
sweet portrait of a mother and a child in a wicker chair in
a garden, sharing reading, with
a description that says “When
Mother reads me a story, I like
to sit in her lap.” A pull tab
transforms the scene into a
picture of a cat and her two
kittens. In a more subtle
presentation about reading,

Philomel’s Books’ Playtime
Delights: An Antique Book by
Ernest Nister (1993) offers a
two-page spread of sketches
illustrating the chaos of the
“The Kitty Family” and their
breakfast. The accompanying verse says:

But now and again papa looks grave.

For oh, the children will not behave;

Fie really cannot read his papers.

The while the kittens play such capers.

Turn the page, and there is the two-page pop-up spread of
the Kitty children misbehaving. Fortunately, sketches of
kittens reading and learning and these verses assure us that:

But after breakfast in school they go;

There’s order and quiet then, you know —

There they learn their A.B.C.’s
And all about geography.

Libraries are not made; they grow. -Augustine Birrell
(1850-1933)

The power of libraries and their association with
discovering the joys of reading has been delightfully
reinforced by a wide range of treatments by pop-ups.

There is the subtle message offered by Fairyopolis: A Flower
Fairies Journal (2005), which is interactive with a map that
folds out and envelopes that open and flaps of postcards,
pictures, and other momentos. Rendered in muted colors, it
evokes the early 20th century time period of British illustrator
Cicely Mary Barker, whose works of fairies and enchanted
landscapes are the focus of the book. It also includes small
books that actually open, such as A Field Guide to Fairies,
which is accompanied by a reproduction of Barker’s library
card for Storrington Library, along with a note by Barker that
says “This morning I cycled to Storrington Library.” Other
books included as interactive elements are A Dictionary of
Fairy Trees, The Secret of the Fairy Ring, and Tales of
Grateful and Helpful Fairies.

^ You’ll learn about simple repairs you can do at
home.

Similarly, Disney
Press’ 2005 Enchanted Library
offers an actual library in an
overtly feminine presentation.

The predominant color is pink
(of course!), and the container
is shaped like a castle and holds
six 2.5-inch tall books, each
one about a Disney princess
(Snow White, Cinderella, etc.).

Each book ends with a pop-up.

The container also stores a
poster and stickers. A similar
presentation of an interactive library is provided by Little Bo
Peep's Library Book: With Real Pull-out Books! (1999) by
Cressida Cowell. Little Bo Peep is searching for her sheep,

and Little Boy Blue directs her
to the library for answers.
Mother Goose is the “helpful”
librarian (but not a very
effective one!), and she
mistakenly refers Bo Peep to the
cooking section. The back
cover of this work says that it is
“a library in a book,” and Bo
Peep and the reader can pull
books from the bookshelves.
The books are all clever titles
based on nursery rhymes, and
they include barcodes and
check-out cards.

Some libraries are more astounding than others. In
the 1994 film The Pagemaster a wizard Pagemaster( librarian
to us!) introduces the library to a boy, Rich, whose daily life
is greatly limited by his many fears. The spin-off book. The
Pagemaster ( 1 994), paper engineered by Jose R. Seminario
and Bruce Reifel, uses pop-ups to capture the film’s action of

nr, swiutK j

fe.

Mother and Me

r,

*

i

S

K $
.#

■$-

■ „ fir j

/jtffe B© j

I UWry r

'4i

JS

^ , - C 'r

" V.

t1

Little Bo Peep's Library
Book

4

books that come to life and thrust Rich into scenarios of
adventure, horror, and fantasy (categories in this library).
We especially love the first pop-up when Rich is
surrounded by a flurry of flying books.

We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of
reading. --B. F. Skinner (1904-1990)

As The
P agent aster' s Rich
discovered a world of
reading in a library, the
Wentworth twins in
Piggy Toes Press’s
2005 We're Bored!

(engineered by Matt
Powers) discover it in a
home library. Benjamin We’re Bored

Lee and Jennifer Rose

are bored consumers. A house filled with toys and other
diversions is not sufficient. In punishment for their
ingratitude, their parents banish them to their father’s
study, where at first they use the books for toys, but then
begin to read them. Especially notable is the two-page
pop-up spread of a half circle bridge of books constructed
by the twins and (he castle that pops up from a book,
reminding us of the format of the Bookano Stories book
series, which were published in the 1 930-40s. In the finale,
the text says “Thanks for the library, Mom and Dad!,” and
a pull-tab reveals Mom and Dad smiling behind the door.

Children often
develop their first love of
books at home. For very
young children there is an
interactive board book
variant of Dorothy
Kunhardt’s beloved (1968)

Pat the Bunny book. This
version is “Part of the Pat the
Bunny™ Baby’s First
Library Series.” The plot
centers on:

It’s time for bed, bunny!

But where is the bunny?

The search is conducted with lift-the-flaps that are
actual pieces of shower curtain, window curtain, tablecloth,
and blanket (as well as a door). At the end, beneath the
blanket, is the bunny with a book, because “The bunny is
in bed, waiting to hear a story.”

/ Love to Read!: A Pop up Book (2010),
illustrated by Katie Saunders and paper engineered by
Manth, is an ode to reading for younger children. A pig-
tailed little girl in pink pajamas loves to read about
everything, including “fairies and princesses and knights
and castles,” and “little girls just like me.” Each two-page

spread of pop-ups captures
what and where she loves to
read, including (for the
finale) “especially in bed.”

The book contains punch
out book marks and
property labels for one’s
books.

What a school thinks about
its library is a measure of
what it thinks about
education.— Harold Howe II
(1918-2002; U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1966-1968)

Besides reading at home, children learn to read and
are encouraged in their love of books at school. This message
is conveyed in interactive books such as this title from the
popular Eric Hill series about Spot the dog, greatly beloved
by preschoolers: Spot Goes to School (1994). This is a
carousel book, with character figures that can be used to act
the story. The room that is Spot’s school contains, of course,
a bookcase!

YvesGot’s Sam 'sPop-
up Schoolhouse is another
carousel book that takes the
reader into a 3-dimensional
educational setting; in this case
two classrooms and a
playground. Character figures,
as well as a miniature book and
a miniature coloring book, can
also be used to recreate the
story for this book. Interactivity
is also achieved through the use
of flaps, wheels, and pull-tabs.

Norman Bridwell’s Clifford the Big Red Dog is
another favorite character recognized by younger children,
and Clifford introduces kids to books in Clifford's
Schoolhouse (2000). When it’s time to read, a child lifts each
of the many flaps to follow the story, while learning numbers,
letters, shapes, and colors.

The more that you read,
the more things you will know.

The more that you learn,

the more places you'll go. -Dr. Seuss (1904-1991; I Can Read
with My Eyes Shut!, 1978)

Sam’s Pop-up Schoolhouse

^ You’ll be able to buy books at the
Saturday afternoon book sale.

5

(^°n%

Sometimes books and
reading empower and teach
lessons to children in rather
unusual ways. In Keith
Faulkner’s The Monster Who
Loved Books (illustrated by
Jonathan Lambert; 2002),
Bradley encounters a very
imposing blue monster in his
Dad’s bookstore. The monster
loves books — he eats them! As
Bradley teaches the monster to
love reading books rather than
devouring them, large, colorful pop-ups bring the books’
characters and action to life.

The Monster Who Loved
Books

Meyer, Judy and Paul ill-treat the
poor Beastie until they learn that

When you cross a beastie
Then he’ll feastie.

The asymmetrical book has zig-
zagged edges on three sides, and
pop-ups and flaps move the action.
A tiny book of Judy and Paul's
Book by Beastie opens to show
Beastie gobbling up these naughty
children. A banner around the page
declares that “Reading is
gastronomical”!

Pat the Beastie

While the book loving monster wants to eat books. The
Tale of Despereaux: The Deluxe Movie Storybook (paper
engineering by Bruce Foster) is about a mouse who does
not want to eat books. Based on the 2008 movie (which
was based on a 2002 book of the same title), Despereaux
(2008) is a unique mouse, different from others and a big
disappointment to his father. His brother takes him to the
royal library to nibble books, but Despereaux reads them
and discovers a story of a beautiful princess and a brave
knight, which is about “love and honor and courage.”
When taken to task for his reading, he responds that it was

a “very good story.” The
book has pop-ups, flaps, and
a slide as well as an envelope
with a proclamation, a small
flap book, and the little book
of adventure that Despereaux
read.

The Incredible Book Eating
Boy

Oliver Jeffers’ 2006
picture book. The Incredible
Book Eating Boy, is brought
to 3-D life in a 2009 pop-up
version paper-engineered by
Keith Finch. Henry literally
devours books and becomes
the smartest person in the
world. But his gluttony begins to make him ill, so he needs
a new way to consume books— through reading! Wheels,
flaps, and pop-ups enhance the muted colors and subtle
drawings of this work. But, we especially love the two-page
spread of two ranges of book shelves and with the pop-out
of a stack of books being devoured by Henry.

'h You can participate in the Silent Auction and
acquire interesting additions for your collection.

■f / ■

Open Me. . . I’m a Dog!

Books are used to teach children lessons other than
reading. In Pat the Beastie: A Pull-and-poke Book (1993),
by Henrik Drescher and paper-engineered by Dennis K.

In Seonna Hong’sT«/ww.s (2005), “a moving picture
book” in verse, a shy young girl learns to deal with her fear
of a very large and mean dog. When her initial overtures are
rebuffed, she goes to a bookstore to acquire How to Make
Friends. She learns that a “happy life is marked by highs and
lows” and that “knowledge is a sword, but it’s also
protection.”

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's
best friend. Inside of a dog, it's
too dark to read. "—Groucho Marx
(1890-1977)

Some interactive books
are designed to have as much
appeal for adults as for younger
readers, and they celebrate books
in remarkable presentations. Art
Spiegelman’s Open Me. . I'm a
Dog! (1997) only has one pop-up
and one flap page, but the book

format is fascinating. A dog leash dangles from the book.
When you open the book, the dog asks;

What’s that?

You think I smell of paper and ink?!

You think 1 look like ... a book?

I was sure you, of all people,

Could see past the wizard’s curse.

I have lived a thousand lives lost within the pages of a book.
-Robert Cormier

The oversized 2005 book The Enchanted Dolls' House
(illustrations and text by Robyn Johnson) provides another
example that emphasizes the importance of books. Its pop-
ups are full-page reproductions of four antique dollhouses
with windows through which one can peek at their contents.
There are also flaps and envelopes on succeeding pages, for
examining accessories. For the sixteenth century medieval
dollhouse, there is a book treasure; “Here is the diary that
Anne [a doll] kept hidden under a bed in this box. She was
named after Anne Boleyn, one of Henry VI II ’s six wives.
She survived in the dollhouse for over a century.” One can
actually open the pages of the diary and read entries for 1 536,

6

—

1537, and 1538.

Reading history is good for ali of us. -David C. McCullough
(1933 - )

Even in very bad times,
reading has helped to sustain
people. For instance, in Kit’s
World: A Girl’s Eye View of
the Depression (2008; paper
engineer Shawn Wilder
Sheehy) , pop-ups, flaps, pull
tabs, and wheels facilitate a
reader’s learning, perhaps
surprisingly, that “Even during
the depression, many people
turned to reading to escape the
hard times. Library books were
free.” In this title of the American Girl series, the inclusion
of black and white photos of a child reading to toys, men in
overalls using a truck bookmobile, a girl on a horse
returning a book, etc. are vignettes from history. A
wonderful pop-up tree house captures Kit’s joy at having
a connection with her favorite tales of Robin Hood.
Perhaps no place in any community is so totally
democratic as the town library. The only entrance
requirement is interest. —Lady Bird Johnson (1912-2007)

A “must” when discussing pop-up books and
libraries, books, and reading is Brooklyn Pops Up: The
History and Art of the Movable Book (concept by Ann
Montanaro, Ellen G. K. Rubin, and Robert Sabuda). It is a
collaboration of the Brooklyn Public Library and The
Movable Book Society in
conjunction with an exhibit of
the same title as the book. Each
two-page spread is by a different
paper engineer(s), and not to be
missed is Bruce Foster’s
rendering of the Grand Army
Plaza and the Ingersoll Memorial
Library that overlooks it. That
flagship of Brooklyn public
libraries “resembles an open
book,” and the pop-up that
captures it has a backdrop of
quotes about books and libraries.
It doesn’t get better than this for
librarians!

Information comes in many more formats than
books. For example. The California Pop-up Book (2001;
paper engineering and design by David Hawcock and
Lesley Betts) was a joint production of the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art and Universe Publishing in
conjunction with an art exhibit on Art, Identity and Image
in California. This interactive book has great pop-ups
( including the Golden Gate Bridge) and pull-outs as well as
miniature information resources that include postcards and
a map and a booklet about the project. A similar
presentation is provided by the The New York Pop-up Book

(2000; paper engineering by David Hawcock), which has a
variety of interactive elements, including pop-ups and
information realia such as postcards, newspapers,
guidebooks, and programs.

'A' You can share collecting ideas
with fellow enthusiasts.

Popigami: When Everyday Paper Pops! Where Pop-
up Meets Origami (2008) is illustrated by Francesca Diaz and
paper engineered by James Diaz. Double-page spreads
transform everyday discards into origami art. Our favorite is
the first one, in which newsprint is transformed into pop-up
doves escaping the pages above headlines of world leaders
declaring peace. It has great appeal for librarians and others
who adhere to a professional commitment to the free How of
information!

"If only I could manage, without annoyance to my family, to
get imprisoned for 10 years, 'without hard labour,' and with
the use of books and writing materials, it would be simply
delightful!"— Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)

Finally, we suggest a
book that is a different sort of
tribute to pop-ups and to libraries
and books, as lagniappe. While
NOT a pop-up book, we guarantee
that it will be of interest to all pop-
up book lovers! Michael Dahl’s
Escape from the Pop-up Prison
(illustrated by Bradford Kendall,
2010) is the story of young girl
who follows her father’s abductors
as they take him to the “Pop-up
Prison,” where “’The world’s
deadliest criminals are trapped in its pages.’” The paperback
graphic novel format in muted yellow, brown, gray shades is
offset by the remarkable plot in this book that is part of "The
Library of Doom [which] is the world’s largest collection of
strange and dangerous books.” There, “The Librarian’s duty
is to keep the books from falling into the hands of those who
would use them for evil purposes.” To parody numerous
graphic novels, “Wow!” A very nice addition to this unusual
work is the two-page “A Page from the Library of Doom:
More About Pop-up and Movable Books,” which is a
glossary of interactive book terminology.

In conclusion, we agree with Clarence Day (1874-1935)
who said, “The world of books is the most remarkable
creation of man, nothing else that he builds ever lasts.”

^ You can see unusual, exotic
(and maybe even erotic!) pop-ups.

Brooklyn Pops Up

Popigami

7

Movable Book Collections, continued from page 3

Questions and Answers

University of Washington

Seattle, Washington

Library catalog: http://catalog.lib.washington.edu/

The Special Collections Book Arts and Rare Book
Collections include over 7,000 titles of 1 7th - 20th century
books providing examples of alphabet books, primers,
books of grammar & etiquette, bestiaries, story books,
fables, moral tales & boys', girls' & series books. The
emphasis on the history of illustration. Over the years
Pamela K. Harer has given many books to the library and
a recent gift added over 1 00 historical and modern pop-up,
movable and toy books. Among the rare titles in the
collection are Dean & Sons’ Clown and Pantaloon 's
Pantomimic Fun and Tricks
(1876), Theatre Miniature,

La Kermesse Villageoise
(Capendu, ca. 1 890), and two
copies of Metamorphosis
from 1814 and 1847.

Merry Company: Pop-ups,

Movables & Toy Books , an
exhibit of over 1 50 titles, was
on display earlier this year.

More information is available
at http://bit.ly/sJGyQb.

University of Rochester

Rochester, New York

Library catalog: http://www.library.rochester.edu/

Q • Are you seeking unusual pop-up books to add to your
collection? Hamid Zadeh has published four new attractive
works: Ancient Persian Empire: A Three Dimensional
Commemorative', Silent Witnesses: Bas-reliefs and Objects
from the Achaemenian Period, volumes 1 and 2; and volume
3 Silent Witnesses: Images from the Achaemenian Period in
3-D.

Ancient Persian Empire (10" x 10" x 3", 166 pages with
text, 192 illustrations, 3 poster-sized panorama) has eleven
pop-up restorations from the ancient sites of Pasargadae,
Persepolis and Naqsh-e Rustam built during the Achaemenian
dynasty in Persia (545 - 330 B.C.E.).

The Rare Books and Special Collections Department at
the University of Rochester Library is building a collection
of movable books. The department has an extensive
children’s book collection, the Mary Faulk Markiewicz
Collection, that was presented to the University in 1983.
Though this initial donation included only about fifty
movable books, Leah Hamilton, who is now the Collections
Manager for Rare Books, has a passion for mechanical
books and is making the movable book collection a main
focus. Leah is developing the holdings to make it more
cohesive historically as well as gathering all of the
Department’s movable books into a Pop-up and Movable
Book Collection, to be accessed through the University’s
online catalog. Beginning with Peter Apian’s volvelles in
the 1 548 Libro dela Cosmographia, the collection also
includes movables by Robert Sayer, S. and J. Fuller, Dean
and Son, Ernest Nister, Raphael Tuck, McLoughlin Bros.,
Lothar Meggendorfer, S. Louis Giraud, and Vojtech
Kubasta, as well as many other choice 19th century and
early 20th century materials. An exhibit of more than fifty
pop-up and movable books from the collection is on
display until August 17, 2012, and it can be previewed at
http://bit.ly/Jqc8jy.

^ You’ll print and assemble a pop-up
commemorative.

Q. I recently purchased a copy
of a book listed on Amazon as
Robert Crowther’s Amazing
Pop-up Big Machines
(Candlewick Press, 2010). The
image shows the same title on
the cover and the OCLC record
has it cataloged with that title.

However, the cover of the book
I received is Robert Crowther
Amazing Pop-up Big Machines.

Do you have this book? Is the name Crowther or Crowther’s?
Was it issued with two titles or is the cataloging incorrect?

Ann Montanaro

Salt Lake City, Utah

Paper reliefs are
used in the Silent
Witnesses series ( 1 24
pages with text, twenty-
six illustrations,
twenty-five paper
reliefs, a gold plaque,
objects on paper and
fabric from various
museums around the
world, and sites of the
Achaemenian period in
Persia (545 - 330

Ancient Persian Empire

B.C.E.). Volume three includes 3-D anaglyphic images.
Members of The Movable Book Society who place an order
before July 1, 2012 can receive a 20% discount on the
purchase of any or all of these titles. The order form is at:
http://www.geomancycards.com/

8

have a
neteenth

century Punch and Judy
movables? 1 have tried,
unsuccessfully, because 1 do
not have access to any of
them, to determine whether or
not the movables in the books
are similar or, perhaps, the
same. And, because
cataloging records and book
seller descriptions vary
considerably (and, further,
because few if any include
publication dates), it is nearly
impossible to tell the books
apart unless covers are shown with the description. Even

then, the inside mechanicals
may be the same. I have
identified some of the titles
that include the words
“royal, ’’“moveable,” “Punch,”
and “Judy.” Can anyone
provide descriptions of each of
them or help tell them apart?
[The first volume of my
bibliography was pre-Internet
so the only entries listed there
are from OCLC and
bookseller’s catalogs and the
descriptions are, in many
cases, incomplete.]

Ann Montanaro

1. Royal Moveable Punch and Judy. Dean & Son. [1 873-
1893],

2. The Royal Acting Punch and
Judy. Dean & Son. [1860-
1870],

3. The Royal Acting Punch and
Judy. Dutton. [1880],

4. Dean ’s Moveable Book of the
Royal Punch & Judy as Played
Before the Queen at Windsor
Castle & the Crystal Palace.

Dean & Son, [1 860.]

5. The Boy's Own Royal Acting
Punch and Judy. Dean & Son,

[between 1856 and 1865].

6. Dean’s New Moveable Book of the Boy’s Own Royal
Acting Punch and Judy. Dean & Son., [1861].

7. Dean and Sons Moveable Book of the Royal Punch and
Judy as Played Before the Queen at Windsor Castle & the
Crystal Palace. 1861.

Q. Does anyone
collection of ni

Q. Are you part of the Occupy Movement? For those who
are not up to
camping out and
confronting
police but
support the
movement,

Carol Barton has
created an
alternative.

Make your own
pop-up Occupy
Tent! Simply go to the web site www.occupypoup.com,
download the tent pattern of your choice and write your
message on the side. Then follow the instructions to cut out
and construct the pop-up into a folded USA map card (also
on the web site) and address it to your government
representative.

Q. Are you looking for pop-up books from the 1970s to
1990s to fill in your collection? Susan Rumsey is selling
books from a small collection of well-known pop-ups that
belonged to her mother. If you are interested is receiving a
price list, contact her at aloha.bears@att.net.

^ You’ll have more fun than you’ve
had at another conference.

Backward Glance
Pop-up You May Have Missed

Ann Montanaro

Wake up in Paris: Three

Dimensional Pop-up Inside! Grow-
Ahead Books. By Mary Scott
Welch. Jon Nielsen, illustrator.

Lithographed in Japan. For
Children, Columbus, Ohio, n.d.,

[196-?].

This charming little paperback
book (13 x 18 cm. 14 pages) has
full-page color illustrations and
originally sold for 39 cents. The
cover notes that the book is designed
for children aged 6 to 12. Inside the
front cover the text reads “In this little book you’ll FIND
OUT: what kind of games French children play, why there is
no school on Thursdays, and why many buildings in Paris are
famous, and why nearly everybody who visits Paris wants to
go back and stay a long, long time.” It includes a double-page
pop-up of the Eiffel Tower encased in the final gatefold page.
Does anyone have other pop-ups issued by this publisher?

R CHK.DB6N «TO?J 39$

.JyW

" sfi Wake up in

TdRlf

m 'LiyofMx%r s( • orr wu.ch

|f pntmir&d by JOK fJ\l£LS£N% %

ill.

%

Wake up in Paris

9

Poppits

Ellen G. K. Rubin
Scarsdale, New York

EXHIBITS

Quand les Livres S’Amusent: Magie et surprise des
livres animes d’hier de d’aujourd’hui (When Books are
Having Fun! Magic and Surprise in Animated Books
Yesterday and Today).

Le Musee de l’imprimerie
(Museum of Printing)

Lyon, France
Until June 24, 2012.

An Artists’ book exhibit. Take
the time to explore the museum’s
website (using Google Translate if
you must) to see the books on
display and a parallel exhibit with
books by fine artists. There is also
a video showing the historic
printing presses housed in the
museum. The books are from
collectors in France and America.
http://bit.ly/lDd9Kg

Springing to Life: Moveable Books and Mechanical
Devices.

Department of Rare Books and Special Collections of the
Rush Rhees Library, University of Rochester, Rochester,
New York,

Until August I 7, 2012.

The exhibit includes books from the 16th century to
today. http://bit.ly/AwnHqc. It was enthusiastically covered
by a local Rochester paper, including the mention of our
Meggendorfer Prize. http://bit.ly/Jk.lofT

MULTIMEDIA

Attention paper engineers! Here is a free-standing,
multi-tasking, flexagon-like pop-up! Can you use it in your
next project? http://bit.ly/JeMVII

Those of you newer to pop-up collecting may not be
familiar with Ampersand Books and Michael Dawson, an
collector and early website master. Michael and his wife
flew from England to attend the opening of Brooklyn Pops
Up! in 2000 and participated in the festivities. While
Michael is no long an active pop-up book dealer, his
history of pop-ups is still up on the web. Take a look and
learn. http://bit.ly/JsQvBb

Augmented reality - is this where pop-ups on the page
meet up with the virtual world? Can we please discuss this
at the next conference in Utah? Book artist Amaranth
Borsuk and her web-designer husband. Brad Bouse, use the
physical book and a computer’s webcam to make objects
move on the screen. But, for me, some of the best qualities
of pop-up books are missing. What’s your opinion? Write

to Movable Stationery to explain your viewpoint.
http://bit.ly/rl OLJs

ARTISTS’ BOOKS

Brian Dettmer (http://bit.ly/diJVqM) with literal surgical
precision carves out paper from existing books to amplify the
original book with astounding and powerful effect. See for
yourself! http://bit.ly/g9D7Y m

May I introduce you to Dario Cestaro, a multimedia paper
engineer? http://bit.ly/IcNPr6

Read an interview about David A. Carter and the making
of The Lorax Pop-up! http://t.co/Q3wrNV4y .

My new emphasis in pop-up and movable paper collecting
is ephemera, erotic or not. Paper engineer Leopold Karp
creates promotional pieces with wonderful movables. Take a
look. In English: http://bit.ly/sFsORR In French:

http://bit.ly/HXLU6Z.

The Movable Book Society
9th Biennial Conference
Salt Lake City, Utah

September 27-29, 2012

http://bit.ly/ICZWOP

10

Exploring Tunnel Books, continued from page 1
A Distinguished History

Tunnel books owe their heritage to the long, line of
optical experiments that eventually led to the motion
picture. In 1437 Leone Battista produced a small box with
a peephole that revealed perspective scenes. The camera
obscura described by Giovanni della Porta in his Magica
Naluralis (1553) used a small peephole with a lens in the
wall of a darkened room, and through this peephole an
image of the view outside the room was reflected on the
opposite wall.

By the 1600s the public’s interest in perspective views
had reached such an intensity that showmen were traveling
throughout Europe to village fairs and other large
gatherings with peepshow boxes on their backs. Inside the
box, cutout cardboard panels created a variety of religious,
historical, and mythical scenes. In time the peepshows
became complex affairs with multiple peepholes (as many
as twenty-six), strings that, when pulled, could change the
views, and pin-pricked backdrops that were backlit to
create the effect of nighttime scenes. As one illustration of
the time put it:

This box doth pleasant sight enclose,
and landscape and perspective shows
of every varied sort;

A penny is the price I ask
for execution of my task
and get a penny for't.

(Untitled print, 1785, anon.)

By the 1700s, with improvements in printing, smaller
versions of the peepshows began to appear for use in the
home. Wener Nekes said in his video. Film Before Film,
the peepshows “explored the sense of depth within the
spatial dimension of an image.” Peter Flaining included
these "toy books" in Movable Books , and quotes one
British publisher who claimed their peepshow displayed the
“life-like effect of real distance and space.” The main
centers for producing these “theaters of perspective” were
London, Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna, Bassano (Italy) and
Augsburg (Germany).

In Augsburg between about 1 740 and 1 770, the printer
Martin Engelbrecht produced prints that could be cut out
and assembled into peepshows. You would buy a sheet
with six or seven prints on it. Each sheet produced one
multi-layer view. His peep shows were produced in three
different sizes. Some of the views have only been found in
one size, and others have been identified as being available
in more than one size. In one of those sizes, the one about
7" x 9", researchers have identified 67 different peep show
views (each with 6 or 7 sheets). So the 456 prints divided
by the 67 different views means that the average peep show
had 6.8 sheets. Using etched copper plates, the views were
printed on thin paper with watercolor added by hand. These
sheets then had to be backed with heavier paper (often old
sheets music or old manuscripts) and then cut out and
assembled by the printer, seller, or customer. The subjects

included Bible scenes, views of foreign lands, life at court,
sporting events, battles, shipwrecks and earthquakes. The
panels were not attached but designed to fit into optical boxes
with slots to receive them.

By the 1850s the panels of the peepshow were attached to
concertina hinges along both sides of the panels. During this
period peepshows were often created to celebrate major
events like the Great Exhibition in London and the opening
of the Thames Tunnel in 1851. This, according to Carol
Barton, is where the expression “tunnel book” was first used
to describe these particular books. Tunnel books of this

period often had three
peepholes with three
separate views. Two
other innovations were a
peephole cover that was
attached to a side hinge
so that it swung away
from the cover when the
book was opened, and a
combination “book n’
box” structure.

The trend to celebrate
major events with a
commemorative tunnel book continued with peepshows for
the New Y ork W orld’s Fair in 1 939 and another one in honor
of Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee in 1 977. In 1977 the New
York Botanical Garden, looking back at the peepshow
celebrating the Crystal palace, produced a peepshow to
promote their glass conservatory. Using artwork by Roy Doty
and design by Carlton B. Lees, the five-panel peepshow was
made from just one sheet of paper that folded and slotted
together to create a light and airy miniature version of the
Botanical Garden’s landmark structure.

Then in 1984 the publication of the Magic Windows™
series of tunnel books enlisted the talents of prominent
illustrators Edward Gorey, Tomie dePaola and Trina Schart
Hyman to create ten-panel books that are notable for having
a magnifying lens in the peep-hole. These books are
significant because they used established artists, included
text, were released by a leading publisher of books, G.P.
Putnam’s Sons, were recorded with the Library of Congress,
were issued ISBN numbers, and were sold in bookstores.
How much more legitimate could they be?

More recently the series of
Gaiaramas™appeared. In 1992
these tunnel books with their
distinctive swing-down handles
were produced by Chen Hanson at
White Eagle with the titles: The
Rain Forest , The Coral Reef, and
Outer Space. As described by the
publisher: “You’ve never seen a
book like it. In fact, it’s a concept
so new and different, it’s patented.
Simply look through the viewfinder

Botanical Garden

Rainforest

and the adventure begins. These unique picture books don’t
open UP, they open O-U-T.” The amount of detail packed
into each volume requires a separate study guide.

Even though peepshows started out as novelty
entertainments, publishers eventually recognized their
potential for storing and imparting information as
effectively as traditional books. In spite of this recognition,
some in the book arts have been slow to concur.

Novelty vs. Artistic Merit

In 1984, the same year that G.P. Putnam’s Sons
published the Magic Windows™ series, Carol Barton
began researching early examples of the tunnel or
peepshow book format in the rare book library collections
of Washington, D.C. “The initial example I saw was a
peepshow book contained in the Smithsonian's Dibner
Library Collection,” she recalls. It was the peepshow
commemorating the building of the Thames tunnel that led
to the term “tunnel book.” Her efforts to promote the tunnel
book structure has resulted in many book artists, including
this author, adapting the format for their books.

“The form is deceptively simple,” Barton explains, “but
to actually adapt it to create a book is a difficult process. I
don’t see most historical peepshows as true books. They
are rather single-view novelty theaters. But if you look at
the structure as being composed of two accordion books
along with the view through the center, and possibly adding
other elements onto the front and back covers or encasing
the tunnel within another book form, the project becomes
much more challenging and more of a true book with
several readings. It is necessary to push beyond the simple
theater aspects of the form and somehow get an audience
to read the piece on several different levels. Otherwise the
format remains a simple toy.”

Matthew Liddle is another
book artist who was
introduced to the structure by
Barton. "[She has] traced the
history of the tunnel book
back to the Renaissance, so
as a novelty the tunnel is not
so novel. I think I’ve given
up on trying to draw the line
between what is or is not a
book. 1 tend to think of forms
and structures and match
them with ideas, images and
text that seem to go with
them. I’ve used the tunnel in
various ways for various
reasons.”

“The process of making a tunnel book is definitely a
bookmaking process” says Deborah Phillips Chodoff. “The
format and content of each page or section is dependent on
the ones before and after; sequence is extremely important.

and the crafting of a tunnel book depends on bookmaking
techniques and materials.” Rand Huebsch agrees, adding “For
me, the definition of a book includes the idea of narrative. As
a theater-like structure the tunnel book has a strong narrative
connotation. Therefore, to me, it qualifies as a book, not a
novelty toy.”

“Yes, I think tunnel books are books,” adds Tara Bryan.
“M y first encounter may have been the Edward Gorey tunnel
book. The Tunnel Calamity. Very mysterious, and I never feel
like I’ve seen everything in it. To me the difference between
book and toy amounts to this: a Jacob’s ladder made of
blocks of wood joined with ribbon is a toy; when something
is added to the structure (image and/or text) to make you
think beyond the structure, it becomes a book.”

Artists’ books should not be defined by past
interpretations of what makes a book, but by what is currently
envisioned and produced by contemporary book artists. A
dazzling collection of tunnel books is taking shape as a result
of the creative efforts of a wide variety of book artists.

So what is it that
book artists are able
to accomplish with
the tunnel book
format that they
cannot achieve with
another structure,
such as a codex, for
example? “I always
try to use structure to
enhance the contents
of my books,” Bryan
explains. “So, yes, I
use the tunnel
structure where it
seems appropriate. 1 used it for Down the Rabbit Hole (1987)
and it does other things than a codex. A codex is great for
linear conveyance of information. A tunnel book alerts the
reader that something else is going on here, and encourages
one to be on alert and explore. The Rabbit Hole book is
pretty straightforward. The holes are squares that spiral thirty
degrees at each layer and get smaller. The text is pasted along
the edges of the holes and also gets smaller. The tunnel ends
with "Thump! Thump! The fall was over" — end of story. But
the tunnel IS a rabbit hole, and gives the viewer the physical
experience as well as the mental experience of the text and
the action described.”

The book artist Matthew Liddle has created many tunnel
books and each one has employed new innovations. “/«
Adirondack Tunnel (1992) I used the structure to create a
little folding diorama. The cover is bark, the tunnel is printed
with show prints and the inside is a woodsy landscape. It has
something to do with the idea of land ownership, a portable,
commodifiable bit of land. In this piece the paper was cut to
let in light to the forest.”

The Tunnel Calamity

A Maze-in Mystery

12

"My Gutenberg Cybergoggles (1997) pokes fun at
virtual reality, contemporary layered typography, and the
hype surrounding electronic media. It is a wearable book
that looks interesting but is a bit disappointing
(appropriately) when you actually try it out. On the outside
is states “Kick me I’m myopic” and on the inside “I’m
shouting but I’ve got nothing to say.” Inside are also layers
of appropriated imagery from the history of printing and
books.

“In a hanging piece called lmagraphic (1999) I’ve
explored (he tunnel as peepshow. The exterior of the tunnel
is made from junk mail window envelopes. The interior
includes a fold book ornamented with intimate imagery and
packaging from products I have consumed, it is some kind
of comment on the intrusion of consumer culture on my
personal life, and an attempt to explore my feelings about
voyeurism, identity theft and the irony of my indignation as
one who is involved in producing media myself. This
hanging piece is intended for gallery display and is
successful in a way that is difficult for a codex under
glass.”

Laura Davidson
created Tunnel
Vision (2000) to
record a giant
construction project
outside her studio
window in Boston. “1
chose the tunnel
format for this book,
because I found it to
be [a] perfect way to show a view of something in a
three-dimensional way. If I had chosen a conventional
format, it would not have captured the visual depth I was
after.”

ForT Maze-In Mystery ( 1992) Maryline Poole Adams
“...used the fact that one could ‘bend’ the tunnel so more
scenes or clues could be discovered around corners — to
help solve the mystery. I wanted a true 3-dimensional
perspective for livelier ambiance.”

For Jar din de
Guadalupe (1994)
Lois Morrison has two
peepholes on the cover
to reflect the two paths
that lead to the shrine
to the Virgin of
Guadalupe in Mexico
City. Each opening
presents a different
view to the same
destination. In another innovative touch, Morrison has
created hinges that serve more than just a utilitarian
function; they are an inseparable part of the intricately cut
garden setting.

It may seem that the codex and tunnel book formats are
at opposite ends of the spectrum, but it is not an either/or
situation. They work very well together, and Return to Paris
(2000), designed by Pat Baldwin with text by William
Markiewicz and artwork by Diane Weintraub, illustrates this
point. When you open the book there is a nine-panel
expanding view of Paris attached to the left cover and a
44-page codex binding attached to the right. This stylish
presentation earned a Distinguished Book Award from the
Miniature Book Society in 2001.

The tunnel/codex combination is not the only possibility.
In The Gadarine Swine ( 1 993 ) Lois Morrison pairs the tunnel
format (a retelling of a New Testament story) with a
concertina format (where present-day Gadarine swine take a
world tour). These are just samples of the variety of
approaches that use the tunnel book structure as a means of
storing and sharing information. The codex has been around
for a long time and has proved to be a serviceable format. But
sometimes a tunnel view best serves the artist’s needs.

A Word to the Wise, Or Not

For the most part the early peepshows did not have text,
but they were far from silent affairs. They had to compete
with other attractions at the fair, such as dancing bears,
learned pigs, jugglers, acrobats, puppeteers, magicians, and
vendors. Bells, horns, drums or other musical instruments
accompanied the barker “selling” the peepshow:

lam Tom West, the Peep-show Man, and have many pretty
as well as curious things to show’ you, my little dears. The
charge is only one halfpenny; and for that you may see the
great Polar bear of the Arctic regions, also a tiger-hunt,
along with many other wonderful sights, in my peep-show,
which would take hours to tell you about. But step forward —
step forward, and see what you will see! That’s right, my
little master; now put your eyes close to the round window,
and keep them very wide open. We are just about to
commence; so pay attention, and listen with all your ears.

The string of
enticements, stories,
and amazing facts
goes on for over a
hundred pages in
Sights at a Peep-Show
(1874, anon.)
Language, in most
cases spoken, was an
important part of
peepshows from their
inception and it remains an integral component of tunnel
books. Text is not a requirement for a tunnel book. Text does,
however, add an element that conveys bookness on what
might otherwise be a non-book object.

One attractive characteristic of tunnel books is the variety
of ways text can be incorporated into the structure. Whether
or not to add a written message and where to place it depends

Jardin de Guadalupe

Return to Paris

13

on the artist’s goal. For this author, text has always been an
important part of tunnel books. In A Great Lunch (1996)
each section of the side hinges is a separate page with its
own portion of the text. In Grandma 's Closet (1991) and
Gertie Escapes (1999) the text dances across the entire
width of each side hinge. The text is placed on the folds for
Rainbow Galaxy ( 1 999 ), and the reader encounters half of
the text when the book is viewed from the front and the
other half when the book is turned around and viewed from
the back. The text for Tunnel O' Love (1994) hops from
one panel to the next within the tunnel. In Windows (1994)
the text is confined to the back panels. Miniature San
Francisco ( 1 996) has no text. The viewer’s familiarity with
the famous landmarks represented in the book makes text
unnecessary.

Julie Chen has provided an elegant and ingenious use of
Elizabeth McDevitt’s text in Octopus (1992). The entire
text was printed on every other panel. But because parts of
each panel have been cut away and parts of other panels
overlap, only one line of text is revealed at a time. The text
undulates and enlightens over the course of fourteen watery
panels. The book measures 12" x 13" and opens to 36." It
is an impressive presentation.

remember this awesome view for myself, and to share it with
others.” Words are not a required element of tunnel books.
Sometimes the emotions that are aroused are equally
eloquent.

Self Image ( 1 994), as the creator
Deborah Philips Chodoff describes
it, “...has irregular openings that
allow the viewer to see his or her
reflection framed by the metallic
painting on the backs of the tiles.
Because the tiles have been heated,
the images are distorted and the
reflection at the end of the tunnel is
tiny.” It is a visually inviting,
sculpturally complex book and has
no words. The viewer’s face
provides the message. Whose face
Grandma’s Closet does not speak volumes? By
incorporating the viewers face in the
structure the artist has created a
tunnel book unique and personal to each observer.

There are many ways to deliver a word to the wise and
when it comes to tunnel books the possibilities are endless.

“My artist’s books
begin with a concept,
not with a
manuscript,” writes
Marylee Bytheriver. “I
design each element of
the book — materials,
structure, content —
as integrated and
interactive expressions
of the overall
concept.” For Outside Art ( 1 998 ), text is an integral part of
the concept. By adding a third top hinge the artist has
created a cave setting as much as a tunnel. The reader can
peer through a peephole, in this case constructed to
resemble a broken window of a derelict building, or swing
the front panel aside for a fuller view. The natural cave
setting inside the book is set up in opposition to the
rundown urban structure outside the book. At the same
time, the text contrasts the thirty-five Native American
petroglyphs inside the tunnel with contemporary graffiti
scrawled on the outside. The tunnel book structure allows
the reader to experience both messages in the context in
which they are typically found.

When the author first saw Tunnel Vision from Laura
Davidson, he guessed at her ambivalence over the
construction project that had polarized much of Boston.
When asked, Davidson responded with a detailed
explanation of how the project had impacted her life, both
positively and negatively. “W ith this love/hate relationship,

1 decided that I couldn’t pinpoint text, because at any given
time, I feel completely different about the project. In the
end, I realized, all I wanted to do with this book was to

The Challenge and Triumph of Time

A common observation about tunnel books is that because
they open up to produce a single scene, they are limited to a
single moment in time. “Because the scene is taken in all at
once by the viewer,” notes Chodoff, "passage of time cannot
be portrayed (except as suggested by accumulation, as in Ed
Hutchins’ tunnel book. Grandma 's Closet , or metaphorically
as in my tunnel book Self Image in which one looks through
holes in warped mirror tiles at a reflection of oneself.)”

But tunnel book
artists (and artists in
every medium) have
learned to pack time
into a single view. In
A Peep-Show Alice
(1989), Maryline
Poole Adams packs all
the highlights from the
familiar tale of Alice
in Wonderland onto
five panels of one
book and a companion
volume presents the highlights of Through the Looking Glass
on another five panels. Poole also created A Maze-In Mystery,
in which a murder takes place with clues, a cast of suspects,
a victim, a perpetrator (in and out of disguise), a weapon and
a solution.

“With its linked parallel planes,” observes Rand Huebsch,
“the tunnel book can imply the passage of time or a series of
events. In As You Like It ( 1 999), each panel depicts a separate
scene. Unified, they comment on each other, so that the book
recalls those early Renaissance paintings that simultaneously

Outside Art

A Peep-Show Alice

14

displayed several episodes of a saint’s life. Circe (1992)
presents a chapter from The Odyssey in which a sorceress
transforms sailors into swine. In the furthest and “earliest”
panel, she offers a bowl of potion to an unsuspecting man.
In the next one, a pig-headed human figure appears, and in
each succeeding panel he becomes more pig than man until
the last panel where a swine leaps. Because each page has
a framework of stylized brambles, the book is ambiguous:
it may be showing different beings at a single moment, or
one being in various stages of a metamorphosis.”

In the author’s book Don 7 Peek (1991) the text is just
three words and two are the title, but it is the text that
drives the action. When the panels are expanded a new
word is revealed that not only changes the view, but also
changes time.

A collaboration
by Doloras Kinal,
Geraldine Murrill
and Annette Purnell
resulted in The
Journey (1999)
where the main
character falls off a
star, cascades
through space and
lands on a whale on
successive panels in
the same book.

Structure is another way that artists can control time.
One of the most powerful tunnel books ever created is
Carol Barton’s Loom ( 1 989). It is, the artist reports, “The
largest tunnel book edition 1 have produced - an edition of
600. It combines Oriental rug motifs with photographic
landscapes and a view of the earth “looming" in space
through the tunnel.” To this author her book is all about
time. Barton has constructed her book so that the side
hinges fold to hide the central viewing area. As the panels
expand, the side hinges open away, one at a time, and the
viewer no longer dwells on the surface of the rugs, but is
taken on a trip to their very core and discovers the
universe. Barton explains, “I think it is successful because
it pushes the format beyond being just a novelty ‘theater.’
Incorporating images along the binding strips, on both
sides of the pages, and through the tunnel, as well as a text
on the back cover encourages the viewer to ‘read’ the
message of the book from several different perspectives.”
It is a timeless experience.

While many tunnel books present a single view at one
moment of time, many artists have discovered a variety of
approaches to capture and tame time in the tunnel book
format.

The Siren Call of the Forbidden View

Early peepshows achieved their popularity not because
of the artistic skill of the construction but because of the

mystery they offered to an unsophisticated audience. Despite
the current connotation of the word “peepshow,” they favored
the exotic over the erotic. For people who seldom left their
neighborhoods the traveling peepshow tantalized them with
views of foreign lands, life in the royal court and secret
societies. One of the popular subjects for the early peepshows
of Martin Engelbrecht was the secrets of Freemasonry.

Alas, the illicit associations with the peepshows of the turn
of the century still linger. When the author searched for
Peepshows: A Visual History at Amazon.com he was quickly
referred to Tales from the Clit , Live Sex Acts, The Lusty Lady ,
Behind the G-String, and Tricks and Treats (by Cherie,
Wendy, and Erika)! Tunnel books rarely live up to their
shady past, but the promise of a secret view is still a forceful
enticement for the reader/viewer. The popularity of
Grandma 's Closet by this author has much to do with the
ability to view secret and forbidden treasures.

Regardless of the subject matter, the physical structure of
tunnel books creates an intimate setting that immediately
draws the reader into the heart of the book. The viewer is not
merely holding an object, the participant has mentally entered
the structure and is surrounded by the environment created by
the artist. Experiencing this intimate setting is not a group
activity. It is one-on-one communication between the artist
and the viewer/reader. Few book structures can so quickly
grab the reader’s attention, separate them from their
surrounding environment, and put them so completely in the
hands of the artist. It’s almost like alchemy; certainly it’s
enchantment.

The Future Viewed Through Tunnel Vision

So far this author has editioned fourteen different tunnel
books and created dozens of one-of- a-kind models. Every
time the possibilities appear to be exhausted, a new approach
comes to mind. Star Box is a case in point. For a long time
a novel approach seemed elusive. Then, remembering that
early peepshows came as loose panels, a simple viewing box
was designed with several transparent panels so each reader
can create an individual view of how it works best. The artist
is also playing with the artists’ book vs. novelty toy
discussion. No matter how you choose to pair the words,
“artistic,” “novelty,” “book,” and “toy,” when viewed through
the other end of the viewing box a completely opposite view
appears. Is this an artists’ book or a novelty toy? The artist
isn’t saying.

The author is not alone in looking forward to exploring
further the possibilities of tunnel books. “I would choose the
tunnel formal again,” says Laura Davidson. “I rather liked the
playfulness of it, and frankly sometimes I get too serious.
Since this was my first attempt, I think that there are other
possibilities for this format. Another time I would...”

Rand Huebsch is more specific. “I would definitely use the
format again and am working on a number of pieces. The
possibilities include 1 ) collapsible toy theaters with attached
shadow-puppet marionettes; 2) use of transparent acetate

The Journey

15

panels with text through which the viewer looks; 3)
collaborative tunnel books (each panel by a different artist).

The bottom line remains: artists will always be attracted
to the tunnel format because it allows them opportunities to
express themselves in a book in a way no other structure
permits.

“Of course I’ll make more tunnel books, concludes Tara
Bryan, “when I come up with ideas that are suited to the
structure. As Vincent FitzGerald taught me, there are no
problems, only solutions! We’ll only know what’s left to be
done with tunnel books when we get to the question that
needs that answer!”

^ You’ll get to see the Great Salt Lake!

Thanks

First off, thanks to Carol Barton who has worked
tirelessly to reestablish the tunnel book as an important and
legitimate artist book structure. At the Cooper-Hewitt
Museum in New York City where 1 had a chance of a
lifetime to handle and investigate the many historic
peepshows and tunnel books in their collections — Liz
Marcus in Prints & Drawings and Steve Van Dyke in the

library were particularly
helpful. Thanks to the
book artists who gave
comments, photos of
their artwork and
support: Maryline Poole
Adams, Tara Bryan,
Deborah Phillips
Chodoff, Laura
Davidson, Mary Flores,
Rand Huebsch, and
Matthew Liddle. Thanks
to Joan Alden who gave
polish to this manuscript,
to Ellen Rubin who helped with the research, and to my
spouse, Steve Warren.

And, of course, this project
would not have been
possible without the
platform provided by
Artists' Books Reviews. I
hope this discussion leads
to a greater interest and
appreciation for Tunnel
Books. For instruction on
making tunnel books, a
good source is Creating
Handmade Books by Alisa
Golden (ISBN
978-0806988252 ).

Creating Handmade Books

Bibliography

Books

Balzer, Richard, Peepshows: A Visual History,

978-0810963498, Abrams, 1998.

Cook, Olive, Movement in Two Dimensions (A study of the
animated and projected pictures which preceded the invention
of cinematography),

Hutchinson of London,

No date.

Freeman, Ruth and
Larry, Cavalcade of
Toys, Century House,

1942.

Haining, Peter, Movable
Books,

978-0450039492, New
English Library, 1979.

Sayer, Philip and Caroline Freeman, Making Victorian
Kinetic Toys, 978-0800850821, Taplinger, 1977.

Whitton, Blair, Paper Toys of the World, 978-0875882895,
Hobby House Press, 1986.

Catalog Essays and Magazine Articles

Barnes, John, Precursors of the Cinema, Catalogue of the
Collection, Part 1, Barnes Museum of Cinematography, Saint
Ives, Cornwall, England, 1967.

Huebsch, Rand, “Tunnel Book: A Theatrical Structure,”
Movable Stationery, Volume 9, No. 3, August 2001 .

Robinson, David, “Augsburg Peepshows,” Print Quarterly,
Vol. 5, No. 2, 1988.

F.W., “Peep-show Prints,” by. Bulletin of the New York
Public Library, Vol. 25, No. 6, June 1921. Follow-up article,
“The Peep-Show Again,” by F.W. Bulletin of the New York
Public Library, Vol. 28, No. 1, January 1924.

Video

The Ancestors of Cinema: Film Before Film by Werner
Nekes, Kino Video, 1986.

This article was originally published in the Winter/2002
issue of Artists’ Books Reviews and is reprinted with
permission of the author. Part two will appear in the
August issue.

Paper Toys of the World

^ You won’t have another opportunity to attend a
conference of The Movable Book Society until 2014.

16

New Publications

The following titles have been identified from pre-
publication catalogs, Internet sources, book store hunting,
and advertising. All titles include pop-ups unless otherwise
noted and are listed for information only - not necessarily
as recommendations for purchase.

Addition: A Pop-up Book.

Number Pops. July. Tango.

$10.99. 9781857078466.

Also: Subtraction.

9781857078510.

Aesop's Fables: A Pop-up
Book. Tango. $1 8.99.
9781857078954.

Animal Kingdom. Interactive Explorer. Silver Dolphin.
$14.95. 9781607101161.

Bodyworks. 9781607101 154.
Oceans & Rain Forests.
978-1607101178.

Weather & Space.
9781607101185.

Cars. Mean Machines.
Hinkler Books. $2 1 .99.
9781741846850.

Also: Trains.
9781741846843.

CHAWLIES

Creepy Crawlies: A Pocket
Pop-up. Walker Books.
$12.95. 9781406337808.
Also: Dinosaurs.
9781406337815

Dinosaur Pop-up Sticker Scenes. July. Dover. $7.99.
9780486486895.

Also: Horse and Stable. 9780486486888.

Jungle. 9780486486871.

Let's Play. 9780486331126.

Old MacDonald 's Farm. 9780486486857.
School Rules. 978-0486331 1 33.

Good Night, Little Bunny: A
Changing-Picture Book.
Templar. $ 1 2.99.
9780763652630.

Also: Home for Hermit: A
Changing Picture Book.
9781848777187.

Haunted House: A Seriously

Jack and the Beanstalk. My
Secret Scrapbook Diary. By
Kees Moerbeek. Child’s
Play. $10.99.
9781846434495.

Also: Little Red Riding
Hood. 9781846434471.
Three Little Pigs.
9781846434488.

Spooky Pop-up Book. July.
Priddy Books. £5.11
9780312514716.

JjSf Good Nifiht.
ml Little Bunti'V

p. Jap,

Happy Easter, Peter! A
Pull-the-tab Book. Warne.
$7.99. 9780723266402.

17

Lion ’s Busy Day: A Pop-up
Book. August. Templar.
£7.99. 9781848772687.
Also: The Lonely Crocodile:
A Pop-up Story.
9781848774902.

Love the Beastie: A Spin-and-
plav Book. By Henrik
Drescher. Workman. $12.95.
9780761161907.

Magical Helpers Pop-up
Book. [Disney Princess] July.
Disney Books for Young
Readers. £5.1 1. 9780736429245.

Peter Rabbit 's Easter Egg
Hunt. W arne. $ 1 6.95.
9780723267287.

My Pop-up World Atlas.
Templar. £14.99.
9781848773981.

Razzle-Dazzle Ruby.
Scholastic. $ 1 7.99.
9780545225007.

Safari Animals: A
Journey Through
the A frican
Wilderness.

3D Explorer.
Silver Dolphin.
$17.95.

9781607102878.

S pin. Price Stern Sloan. $12.99.
9780843199246.

Spy the Spies: Cars. August. Random House/Disney.
$7.99. 9780736428828.

Also: Magical Helpers. 978-0736429245.

Peekaboo Toys. 9780736428804.

Pop-up Peekaboo! Meow. DK
Preschool. $9.99.
9780756693091.

Pop-up Meerkats: Numbers.
Hodder Children’s Books.
£7.99. 9781444903690.
Also: Pop-up Meerkats:
Opposites. 9781444903706.

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION LIBRARIES

3 9088 01555 1096

Wake Up. Sloth! Roaring Brook
Press. $16.99. 9781596437128.

The Story of Things: From
the Stone Age to the
Modern Age in 10 Pop-up
Spreads. Hodder &
Stoughton. $19.99.
9780340945322.

18